Thanks to everyone for the responses and suggestions! I really appreciate it. Toolbelt: part Canadian is still good. :) I have asked at a few nurseries and everyone seems a little "meh" on the rose options here. One high-end, quite well-known nursery basically told me to choose from the Explorer series and that was all they could offer me. They only had about 3 selections and I left feeling a little blue. But I'll keep checking. ptwonline: I'll check into Campfire; thanks for suggesting it. I hadn't thought of growing in pots. Maybe once my deck is done...can you do DAs in pots in this zone? Slimy_Okra: I'm in the Edmonton area so no chinooks for me. I'll make sure to mulch like mad; I learned the value of mulch in my last garden, so I'm sold on that. But I didn't think much about exposure except for "full sun", so I appreciate the wisdom about the early budding. I wouldn't have thought of it myself. blackgavotte: Wow. Two of the most beautiful places in Canada, and you've lived in both! Though I can't imagine going from a garden in B.C. to one on the coast. My hat's off to you for soldiering through. Zaphod42 gave me some roses to try, and Campfire was suggested, so I'll keep trying. I just can't seem to get past the form and fullness of the DAs and I think now that what I am really asking is if anyone makes a rose like them that survives in my climate. Of course the answer is "no", but I keep asking as if someone will someday say "yes". "Hansa" has a lovely colour though, so that's a plus. Zaphod42: many thanks for that list! I've looked over it and I am going to give the three Canadians and Great Maiden's Blush a try. I had Henry Kelsey before, I think. Light pink? And Snowbeauty is a favorite out here if I'm not mistaken. But it only blooms once, right? That's one of my hold-backs; I'll just have to plant colour around it. We get tons of snow cover. Too much. :) But you're right, it's good protection. And since we have what appears to be an entire village of hares around here, perhaps the snow cover will keep them from eating the roses when food is scarce in winter. Thanks again everyone! Lots of interesting user names too. ;)

Ha. Thanks guys. It was kind of pretty as a juxtaposition. Can't complain about the weather guys on this one. They told us when it looked like full blown summer that winter was coming the next day. So, I decided to get some before shots for the after. The cold did do a number on some plants, the fruiting ones that had come out. But, on most of the blooming ones in the pics, they were set back some but will be OK. Blue Bell, the least you could have done is come up and help us close the door, we may have another shot of snow tonight. Crazy. And, uhohgardner, sharp eye. The good news is the only thing we found that had been buried under the snow once it all melted was a newspaper whose headline (would have) warned us "Blizzard on the way". Ha. All children accounted for. ;) They say we got more snow last Friday than we had in the prior three years combined.

I have no problem with people dismissing my feedback if that is what you mean by your post. At the same time, there are no absolutes here. And people have different standards. We are all here to share our experiences. I am not here to sell you a Chinese cookbook, telling you that you can duplicate what you eat at a commercial establishment at home. Nor do I have the credentials of Grace Young. So use the feedback for what it is worth taking into account that you are getting free advice so it may just be worth that much :). We are however, are avid cooks and we are going through our second remodel (for a different house). The first upgrade to 15K BTU was a huge boost over the contractor grade gas cooktop. So let there be no doubt about that. And yes, we can smoke the wok and do OK creating "wok hay" on small amount of ingredients -- maybe. But for day in, day out cooking, 15K is merely adequate at best. The kind of wok hay I experience at my favorite Asian restaurants is in an entirely different class than what we can recreate at home. As I post before, a 15K BTU cooktop is not even in the same planet as what is used in a commercial setting. Yes, they like speed in that environment. But when it comes to Chinese cooking, speed is recipe item #1. You canÂt let the ingredients stew in the sauce and expect to have the same thing come out as flash cooking on a high power cooktop. Remember, it is easy to justify what you own. It is much harder to be critical of it :).

We're happy to be near that vast reservoir, Lake Michigan. Cools us in the summer and moderates our weather most of the year. Our city has its own pumping station providing plenty of good drinking water. No tornados, hurricanes, and until the New Madrid Fault wakes up -- no quakes to mention. We have an acre of quiet, but are 3 mins. to town shops and RR to Chicago. Pretty much content. In the dead of winter...Maui. (O'Hare is 45 mins. away.) I hear you California people. Friends and former neighbors live near San Francisco, despite their son's warning that The Big One is overdue, and that's his business: Risk Management. Ha-ha, he lives there too!